Having taken part in the Beta test of this RPG, I have some high hopes for the final product when it is released in Q2 (I estimate June). I really liked how it was EotE with a Rebel Scum skin on top, I really grew to enjoy the Dice Mechanics in EotE and seeing them applied in a different scenario was pretty fun. The concept of running a campaign as a Rebel cell appealed to my group of gamers and we were able to take part in the beta for a large chunk of time.

Duty seems to fit mechanically and there is a childlike glee in flying a squad of X-Wings against an Imperial Base. Because of those styles of missions, I really got the impression that Age of Rebellion deserved it's own Core Rulebook through how different progression and campaigns seemed to play out. It made me really appreciate the vision FFG have for the SWFFG RPG.

What are you most looking forward to with the RPG as we not only get the Core Rulebook, but also hear about upcoming supplements?

I personally can't wait to see how the Adventure Books will play out. EotE really went all in for exploration, criminal organizations and Jewel Heists, so I hope that we see bombing missions, infiltration, smuggling and who knows what else FFG could throw at us! As someone who is buying the EotE class books, the AoR books are a no-brainer purchase wise, the idea of new skill trees/class powers is pretty exciting.

More elusive comes the Galaxy Setting books like Suns of Fortune. I hope we see books that give us detailed histories of various Rebel bases throughout Star Wars, including the equipment they used to remain hidden and all sorts of wonderful fluff for the planets the bases are located on.

All I know for certain about AoR, is that I'm going to need a bigger bookshelf/wallet to afford these things.

Also, I apologise that this post is a bit disjointed.

Star Destroyers.

As an owner of the beta and having ran a couple sessions with it, I'm really hoping for an expansion on developing Duty into character backstories and adventure hooks, as my group found this much more difficult to develop than Obligations (which for the most part inherently encourage conflict and adventure).

I'm also really keen to see how they cover the setting/locations chapter, to see how different it is from EotE and how it's tailored to the Galactic Civil War.

I'm hoping for really amazing space combat options.

I'm hoping for really amazing space combat options.

This, and I'm also hoping to get to see some of the ships that have never been officially statted before. The Mon Cal Corvettes, Frigates, and Light Cruisers, the CC-series Frigates, the Nebulon B2s, the Interceptor Frigates and Marauder missile conversions from EaW, the Sorosuub cruisers from Rebellion and so forth.

Oh and the Alderaanian gunships mentioned in the Return of the Jedi Novel and Razor's Edge.

What are you most looking forward to with the RPG

SPACE WEASELS!!!!!

Oh, wait...!

(Actually... I think those wanting complex starship combat are gonna be disappointed...)

I'd like to see stats for the standard Imperial and Alliance fleets and armies. Also stats for species like Mon Calamari, Sullustans and Ithorians.

I know it probably won't be there, but I'd love rules incorporating FFG's X-wing Miniatures game with AoR and EotE.

Despite it never showing up in AoR, there are still a lot of people crying for mass combat. Personally, I would never use them, but if it makes others happy I would like to see it.

What are you most looking forward to with the RPG

SPACE WEASELS!!!!!

Oh, wait...!

(Actually... I think those wanting complex starship combat are gonna be disappointed...)

Yup, although I think Jegergryte has a thread somewhere with some nifty improvements. Those hoping for mass combat rules will also be likely disappointed.

I don't truthfully expect mass combat rules, but if I want to put it in my games bad enough the mass combat mini-game ideas from Diaspora/Fate could be adapted to narrative dice in maybe 2 to 3 whole minutes. It's pretty much a non-issue. Now, I do hope a Pilot splat explores more options than just "remove a setback die with this amazing signature talent", but that's more of our infamous speculation for another day, friends.

I'm just looking forward to the way it will expand the scope of the game. I love the view of the Star Wars universe that EotE delivers, and it will be cool to expand that with the presence of the Rebellion and the Empire. It's also going to be awesome to have all the iconic stuff from my childhood stat'd up with this amazing system.

It's also going to be cool to see what the supplements are like.

Once we have F&D, if everything remains balanced and Jedi don't run away with everything, it's going to be such an awesome.

What I'm looking forward to is having some actual space combat with capital ships. The ability to combine it with my already going game. it'll add some new perceptive and new tactics.

I don't know if this sort of thing gets left out of a beta test, if it was in the beta, or what... but I would like to see a way that this system could mix minion groups and PC controlled ships; like the Falcon leading Gold Squadron in ROTJ.

I don't know if this sort of thing gets left out of a beta test, if it was in the beta, or what... but I would like to see a way that this system could mix minion groups and PC controlled ships; like the Falcon leading Gold Squadron in ROTJ.

I would do this narratively, to be honest. Maybe have the lead ship (the PCs) make a particular roll for the group but most of the results are narrative and like everything else merely influenced by the roll. I don't want to see it get too complex. Mass combat rules are rarely fun or a good simulation, hence keep it as narrative as possible.

I agree! You could actually have the PC's make rolls, and use Threats, Advantages, etc to see how the overall battle was going.

What I'm looking forward to is having some actual space combat with capital ships. The ability to combine it with my already going game. it'll add some new perceptive and new tactics.

This to, some of my most memorable RP experiences have been commanding capships or fleets in th older systems.

I'm kind of in two minds about mass combat.

Firstly, the focus is supposed to be on the PCs, and having battles with huge ships with hundreds, if not thousands, of crew, would slow EoE/AoR to a crawl. And minimize the role of the PCs, which is the opposite of what the game should be about. I would run something like the escape from Hoth purely from the PCs point of view, probably without reference to stats for ATATs or snowspeeders, with the PCs rolls determining what happens and everything else just being background description.

I'm a big believer that the battles in a SW game should be 'pulpy', reflecting the fast-moving, cinematic action of the original films or an Indiana Jones movie. Brutal, hour-long grindfests a la D&D 4E are the antithesis of what I feel a SW battle should be about.

On the other hand, space battles are a part of what makes the films cool, and each of the movies has some ship to ship action. I wouldn't mind seeing some system that handles this without bogging the game down with endless number-crunching.

I've been handling all of my mass combat scenes, fighters, troops, walkers, what have you, entirely as a single Leadership check.

I know, I know, that's not what you wanted to hear! But listen.

This is not a tactical game. We are not fielding 500 miniatures like a war game. Use the relative strengths, challenges, and environmental effects to build your dice pool and just do it. I guarantee everyone in your group that is NOT biding their time until they can bust out their Warhammer army will love the brevity of the mechanics and getting back to all the other wildly interesting parts of the adventure that you have planned.

While I do want mass combat rules of a sort, I want a narrative not minutiae driven ruleset. What I do is this: story wise I know WHO will win a battle, the trick is how well they win it. I assign difficulty as base for enemy forces, attribite dice represent the base for allied forced. The party can the accomplish certain mission goals to upgrade the dice. Failure upgrades enemy dice, etc. If the battle roll comes out with despair results, the chosen side wins but at a great cost.

Imagine return of the Jedi.. the deathstar is destroyed, the emperor dead, but if enough despair is rolled the rebel fleet is destroyed in the process. It's all about story.

That is what I would want for mass combat rules... and hey.. I have it!

A lot of you envision or shoot for a worst case scenario when this comes up, and I know when someone says "mass combat" the initial reaction is to envision scenes like the Death Star battle from ROTJ or ROTS where there are hundreds of ships and a ridiculous amount of things to consider, or maybe even a ground engagement reminiscent of Hoth. This could be the case but often times what many are referring to are much smaller engagements where the PC's are still the star of the show, but it involves more than just your Nemesis/Rival target and a few packs of minions. Perhaps your 4 PC's are in a few wings of fighters or maybe each one is a squad leader on a ground assault. Point being, there are more allies present than just the player characters. This could be anything from 2 npc's up to 10. This is going to come up often in AoR. So, what do you do?

It doesn't take much to either narratively take care of the engagement, or give the PC's some minion-like control rules to run a slightly larger-than-normal encounter. In fact, we're talking minimal blurb here. It could be tackled in a grey box as small as the Sabacc rules for that matter. The leadership checks or player-based minion/companion ideas that have been mentioned are great, really. I use similar methods. A few quick rolls of the narrative dice.

I also feel that everyone is well aware that this is a narrative system and not a tactical simulator. I discourage the constant barrage of snarky wargame or miniatures-based commentary. The hope for a few, quick Official guidelines on the topic is present and there isn't a single thing wrong with that. If it doesn't come, we'll continue to use our quick and easy houserules to run encounters that are a little thicker than what's covered in the scope of the Core Rulebook. It's truly not a big deal. Not a 2000 ship large, GURPS kind of deal at any rate

what I want is more good quality art like some of the character portraits in EoE. I'd like to see a surprise race or two, since they already released Duros I'd like to see something different and not a Rebel variant human. More guns and gear. More ships.

In regards to mass combat I agree and don't really need that included. I like the using Leadership suggestion. Honestly you have to ask yourself, how much time and effort would FFG want to invest in those kind of rules when they have a mini game for the genre already?

While I do want mass combat rules of a sort, I want a narrative not minutiae driven ruleset. What I do is this: story wise I know WHO will win a battle, the trick is how well they win it.

This goes a little farther than I'm prepared to go. I wouldn't have a huge issue if the Rebels lost at Endor if that furthered the plot I wanted to tell. I don't really care for secretly-decided-from-the-outset battle outcomes.

What would I like to see…setting sourcebooks with good fluff and exciting (but balanced) new crunch. I think AoR is in the best position to represent army-type forces regardless of time period. I want a KoToR sourcebook. I want a Yuuzong Vong War sourcebook. And yes, I want an Imperials sourcebook (probably Imperial Remnant era).

I'm looking forward to gear and ships. As my group is much more invested in being smugglers but want some offensive punch (and everyone loves the stupid X-Wing which I say ironically before everyone jumps on me), I'm excited for military gear that can be great smuggling stories such as stealiing parts for AT-STs for a Rim world narcobaron who wants more defense for his narco fields.

Also on the mass combat idea...my group has been playing the FFG Warhammer 40k games for years and the Rogue Trader game has the group making rolls for the entire ship (thousands of crew) in starship combat and works very smoothly. They are the command structure and I think if I was going to have a major Star Wars battle, they would be acting as bridge officers of a star ship and making rolls related to that (gunnery officer makes gunnery checks, pilot officer makes piloting checks etc). so yeah. I think a good GM can make mass combat work without much hassle and just needs to have a group who is interested in it.

mostly...i'm looking forward to the gear and ships. Key Star Wars stuff X-Wings, A-Wings, more advanced Tie Fighters (Interceptors, Bombers, Tie-Advanced and Tie-Defenders) and all the military level. I love gear.

I'm looking forward to gear and ships. As my group is much more invested in being smugglers but want some offensive punch (and everyone loves the stupid X-Wing which I say ironically before everyone jumps on me), I'm excited for military gear that can be great smuggling stories such as stealiing parts for AT-STs for a Rim world narcobaron who wants more defense for his narco fields.

Also on the mass combat idea...my group has been playing the FFG Warhammer 40k games for years and the Rogue Trader game has the group making rolls for the entire ship (thousands of crew) in starship combat and works very smoothly. They are the command structure and I think if I was going to have a major Star Wars battle, they would be acting as bridge officers of a star ship and making rolls related to that (gunnery officer makes gunnery checks, pilot officer makes piloting checks etc). so yeah. I think a good GM can make mass combat work without much hassle and just needs to have a group who is interested in it.

mostly...i'm looking forward to the gear and ships. Key Star Wars stuff X-Wings, A-Wings, more advanced Tie Fighters (Interceptors, Bombers, Tie-Advanced and Tie-Defenders) and all the military level. I love gear.

Pretty much on the same page as you. Military stuff and fluff. I guess my lack of patience with the mass combat critics is just that...FFG already have great, functional, and super easy methods for tackling that kind of encounter. If they want to really dig into a medium to large scale Civil War encounter it would take minimal effort to make one of their existing methods drop right into the existing Star Wars crunch. It's practically a non-issue.